Monday, August 4, 2008

The Fourth On The Fourth Celebrates Thirteen...

Disney spent approximately 800 million for this new park that was the creation of Imagineer Joe Rohde... The budget was closer to a billion with "Beastly Kingdom" included, but Eisner in an attempt to cut cost decided to hold off on building that part of the park and instead put the much cheaper Camp Minnie-Mickey where BK was supposed to go.

Only two of the three areas for animals were completed. The extinct(Dinosaurs, ect), the living(Lions, Tigers and Bears... oh my) would greet visitors when they walked into the park, but the Mythical(Dragons, Unicorns, ect.) would have to wait...

7 comments:

Never having been to DCA, hitting the Animal Kingdom about five years ago had to be my DCA moment. "This is Disney?" While, admittedly, I should have previewed the Dinosaurs ride before taking my young daughter on that abominable tragedy of a ride--it still doesn't justify a ride that is almost nothing but 1000 decibel dinosaur roars in the dark.

Then the rest of the park was just boring. To the point that, when we hit Disney World for the first time in six years next year, we're skipping Animal Kingdom altogether. I'm focusing on Magic Kingdom and Epcot, probably a trip to Hollywood studios.

I was very disappointed by Animal Kingdom. I recall saying something to the effect of: "Well, maybe in 15 years it will actually be worth coming to" to my wife. That was the kind of impression Eisner's vision made on me!

Actually the Yeti could be considered real. It's based on stories of a white ape like creature in the Himalaya mountains. It may not be real, but remember the stories about gorillas being fictional till they were discovered in the late 1860s. Everyone thought the stories were fake and no such creature existed.

I think what Beastly Kingdom was supposed to be about Dragons, Unicorns and Chimaera. It's clear that these creatures don't exist. Also remember that the area was supposed to be a land of it's own. Expedition Everest lies in the Asia section of DAK, an area which is supposed to represent real creatures.

If a Yeti hasn't been found by now it isn't real. It's on the same scale as Bigfoot and Nessie, modern day mythical creatures if you will. And the mythical creatures you listed were all thought to be real at one time as well.

The Everest attraction accomplishes the representation of mythical creatures that is the missing link in the branding of AK.

There more of cryptids. not mythological creatures. there has been claimed sightings but no real eveidence. There has been pictures but no actual proof by tons of people. There haven't been sightings of unicorns or dragons which are made up characters and the others are more like legends